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State superintendent candidates share their thoughts on improving state test scores

April 8, 2026

As part of this editorial board’s ongoing election coverage and endorsement process, we reached out to candidates for state superintendent of public instruction on a litany of public policy issues. In 2024-25, just 48.82% of students met the state’s standards on English Language Arts and 37.30% met the state’s standards on mathematics. Here, we present their thoughts on how they would boost state test scores and close the achievement gap.

Richard Barrera, San Diego Unified School board member and advisor at the California Department of Education

California shouldn’t treat a return to pre-pandemic scores as acceptable, especially when the earlier baseline already reflected large racial and economic gaps. Improving math achievement means strengthening instruction and also addressing the barriers that keep students from learning consistently.

My plan starts with stronger foundations in the early grades, including early numeracy and the skills that support later math success. Next is staffing stability. Students learn more when schools can recruit and keep well-prepared teachers and when classrooms aren’t constantly disrupted by vacancies. Third, students who have fallen behind need sustained academic help that is consistent and aligned to classroom learning, such as tutoring, added learning time, or summer learning when it is delivered reliably. Fourth, accountability should be paired with real support for improvement, especially in schools serving high concentrations of low-income students, English learners, and historically underserved communities.

In San Diego, we saw that outcomes improve when districts invest in educators, maintain stable governance, and align supports around student needs. That is the approach I would work to strengthen statewide.

Josh Newman, former State Senator/Senior Fellow, UCI School of Social Ecology

Returning to pre-pandemic levels isn’t a victory when those levels were already unacceptable. The recent scores cited in the question aren’t statistics to manage, they’re evidence of a generational failure that demands urgency, not incrementalism. Other states have shown it can be done differently. Mississippi, Tennessee, and Massachusetts, states with very different politics and demographics, have made real, measurable gains by committing to coherent, evidence-based strategies and sticking with them. California should study those successes, adapt the best of them to our context, and move with the same urgency. Improving math achievement is not a red or blue issue. It should be about what works.

My plan as Superintendent will focus on three levers that research shows actually move achievement.

First, strengthen math instruction from the earliest grades. That means universal access to evidence-based early numeracy, high-quality instructional materials, and sustained professional development, not one-off trainings. It means rebuilding the middle-school math pipeline so more students arrive at Algebra I prepared, not just pushed through. And it means expanding tutoring and small-group instruction targeted to students who are behind, especially multilingual learners and students with disabilities. None of that happens without strong teachers, which is why I’ll accelerate the work I began in the Legislature to modernize teacher preparation, expand residency programs, and ensure math teachers get the coaching and collaboration time they need to deliver strong instruction. Math teachers are in critically short supply; we cannot raise achievement without addressing that directly.

Second, tackle chronic absenteeism. Statewide, roughly one in four California students was chronically absent last year, missing so much school that even strong instruction couldn’t reach them. As SPI, I’ll organize a statewide attendance campaign, expand community-based partnerships, and ensure every district has early-warning systems and trained staff to intervene before students disengage entirely.

Third, close opportunity gaps by expanding access to advanced coursework and career-connected learning. Research consistently shows that students perform better academically when they can connect what they’re learning to real-world purpose. More dual enrollment, more high-quality CTE pathways, and stronger partnerships with labor and industry will give students, especially those who have been underserved, a reason to engage with math as a gateway, not a barrier.

Strong teaching, consistent attendance, and meaningful pathways: that should be the plan. Not a new one every year, but a coherent, sustained commitment to supporting and educating student in every zip code.

Sonja Shaw, president of the Chino Valley Unified School District

California’s math scores should worry every parent. 37% is not even close to good enough. and getting back to pre-pandemic levels is not success. We’ve returned to a benchmark that was already failing too many kids. Here’s how we fix it: Start with the basics. Real math instruction, taught clearly. Kids mastering fundamentals, then building step by step from arithmetic into higher math.

We’ve drifted into too many experimental approaches that lower standards and leave classrooms confused. That has to stop. We must let teachers teach. They want their students to succeed, but they’re stuck dealing with shifting standards and unclear direction. Give them solid curriculum, real training, and the tools to do the job right.

Early intervention matters more than anything. When a student falls behind in math, you don’t wait. You step in right away with tutoring, small groups, extra time. Act before the gap turns into something permanent. Also, parents deserve the truth. Clear data, no spin, no hiding the ball. Schools and districts should be accountable for results. Period.

California doesn’t need more excuses. It needs leadership that’s focused on results. That’s how we actually get kids back on track.

Anthony Rendon, former state Assembly Speaker

There isn’t one specific measure that’s a silver bullet for academic achievement, the reality is effective collaboration with school districts, teachers, parents, and other stakeholders allows us to find the best current methods and tools to improve academic performance. The recent movement to reform the statewide reading curriculum, is an example of how collaboration can work. The legislature passed a measure combining the implementation of “science of reading” with input from the teachers who are in the classroom that should help improve reading achievement by students. Addressing problems in the classroom in similar ways is actually how we will improve academic performance rather than another new program or mandate from the legislature.

Al Muratsuchi, California Assemblyman

Research data clearly shows that early childhood care and learning make the biggest difference in establishing a lifelong foundation for student academic success and well-being, as well as in closing opportunity and achievement gaps based on income and race.

As a state legislator, I have championed initiatives like universal transitional kindergarten as well as making kindergarten mandatory. As State Superintendent, I will continue to champion early childhood education as the most effective strategy to improve statewide student success and to close opportunity and achievement gaps. I will also continue to champion evidence-based educational best practices like promoting the science of reading, which I led as a joint author of AB 1454.

Recently, school districts like Los Angeles and Compton have also raised their test scores with targeted academic interventions such as math and reading tutors. I will continue to advocate for state funding to support these types of targeted academic interventions with proven results. As State Superintendent, I will provide statewide education leadership by working closely with local and state education leaders to identify, support, and promote evidence-based best practices for local school districts to adopt.

Nichelle Henderson, board member of the Los Angeles Community College District

The system is not designed for all students to succeed academically or economically. Social promotion has to stop; students must not continue to matriculate from grade to grade not having demonstrated mastery of grade level content, teachers must be allowed to teach for long-term comprehension; assessing students as they teach to ensure that they catch misconceptions and correct errors that lead to gaps in learning. To continue to teach and not immediately assess and not use assessment data results to support student learning is to set students and their teachers up for failure.

My plan to boost achievement and close achievement gaps is to work with the CDE to change the way that we apply the state and common core standards in instruction; perhaps changing the standards, revise statewide assessments to include a pretest to assess students’ prerequisite knowledge and quarterly assessments to determine what students are learning and what they have learned versus one cumulative, end of year assessment that highlights student’s ability to mark correct answers, not their understanding.

Assessments should determine student’s learning in real time, and the results should be used to guide future instruction and develop realistic plans to address misconceptions and errors. We currently report standardized test data, but the data is not used to support student’s long-term comprehension.

Gaps are more efficiently closed by setting expectations for the implementation of instruction and academic achievement of all students through rigorous, culturally appropriate and relevant curriculum, and the implementation of instructional strategies that are rooted in student learning and accessible to all students regardless of their physical or mental ability.

Orange County Register

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State superintendent candidates share their thoughts on improving state test scores

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